Re-scheduled County Hall meeting given new date

THE meeting to decide the fate of the Brewery Road car park and County Hall’s future in Woking has been postponed again, with residents opposed to the move questioning the process. Originally scheduled for November, the meeting had been re-scheduled for January 5. A further announcement has now fixed the date for January 14 — a decision understood to have been taken to allow more councillors to attend. Council leader Jim Armitage called the meeting after a political spat broke out among Conservative and Liberal Democrats in the marginal Horsell council ward. The Tories accused the Lib Dems of supporting the proposal in public and campaigning against it in private. The Lib Dems replied that they had only supported the principle of a County Hall move to Woking, not any individual site. Conservative leader Cllr Armitage called the meeting saying only a vote of full council would clarify the position and force every councillor to reveal his or her position. On June 26 this year, the executive committee — sitting in private after excluding the press and public on the grounds that commercially sensitive information might be disclosed — resolved to hand over the power to dispose of the car park to executive director Ray Morgan in consultation with Cllr Armitage. Cllr Armitage told the News and Mail: “What has happened so far is that the executive has given authority to Mr Morgan as the responsible executive director to dispose of the site in consultation with me. “I am choosing, as my prerogative, to consult with council. “I will make a recommendation to council based on what is there and seek council’s support or otherwise for those terms. “There may or may not be a vote depending on people’s objections or support. “I will then take the advice of council and consult with the executive director and will say yes or no to those terms on that basis. “The executive director could ignore me but it would be foolish for him to do so.” Horsell Residents’ Association president Dorothy Smith, who has written to all councillors ahead of the meeting, said: “I think the council has found itself caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. “If councillors are not taking a public decision to sell the land that goes against the whole democratic principle and residents will find it extremely difficult to swallow. “The council says the executive director will make the decision but he is not an elected member of the council. “That really seems to be totally and utterly undemocratic.” The meeting starts at 7pm on Wednesday January 14.